What Trade Deals Could Occur Under a Trump Administration?

The Trump Administration will look for bilateral trade deal partners in the New Year, assuming the US President-elect ditches America’s involvement in TPP.  American Farm Bureau trade adviser Dave Salmonsen says a handful of countries are ripe for talks.

“We’d still be interested in doing a bilateral deal with japan, a large trading partner capable of improvements, and we had a lot of good provisions in TPP with Japan.  We’d like to save some of those or find a way to make those move ahead Vietnam is a country we’d like to do a deal with, there a re a lot of opportunities there, especially in meat products.

Salmonsen said China, which was never a member of the TPP is the biggest player in the pacific region.  And while that will be a hard nut to crack, there are other countries that might increase the value of US agricultural exports include Indonesia, the Philippines, and Taiwan.

“We’ve had some issues getting pork exports into Taiwan, we’d like that improved.  Whether those issues on specific commodities rise to the level of going ahead with a full-blown trade agreement, but certainly another area in the Asia Pacific where agriculture defiantly has a trading interest.”

Another question for the new administration is who will lead trade negotiations?  Will it be longtime Trump business lawyer Jason Greenblatt, tapped for a new post of special representative for international negotiation, or a not yet named nominee for US Trade Representative?

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